An 8-year-old girl was brutally beaten to death by two women, one of them her mother, who were involved in an “unconventional” relationship, a court in London has heard.

Ayesha Ali was found with more than fifty injuries in the house that her mother Polly Chowdhury, 34, shared with her lover Kiki Muddar, 43, in Chadwell Heath, East London.

Ayesha had bite marks on her shoulders and had suffered extensive carpet burns, suggesting she had been dragged around the house.

Chowdhury and Muddar have been charged with her August 2013 murder.

The two had met in 2012 when Muddar moved into the house that Chowdhury shared with her husband Afsar Ali, Ayesha’s father.

Soon after the couple separated before Chowdhury and Muddar moved into the Chadwell Heath property.

The Old Bailey in London heard that the two women shared a “bizarre” relationship in which each of them created fictional characters to “facilitate a sexual relationship”.

“To say their relationship was unconventional is a gross understatement – it was complex and involved fictional characters,” said prosecutor Richard Whittam QC.

“In what I euphemistically referred to as their unconventional relationship, Muddar used a fictional character that she had created to facilitate a sexual relationship with Chowdhury,” Mr Whittam added.

“That character was called Jimmy Chowdhury. He is a fiction, pieced together by Muddar. He existed only on Facebook and only communicated with Polly Chowdhury remotely through Facebook, by text or through Muddar herself.

“There was a photograph of a man she had placed on the Facebook page but that was not a Jimmy Chowdhury.

“Polly Chowdhury never met him and wanted to marry him.”

Muddar is said to have created another character called ‘Skyman’, a Muslim “guru” who communicated with Chowdhury via text messages.

The court was told that Muddar had created the characters in a bid to “control” Chowdhury.

Mr Whittam continued: “Polly Chowdhury appeared to accept what he said by text and she would try to act in a way that was approved of by him or to please him.

“In reality that was Muddar communicating with her.”

Part of Muddar’s plan, the court was told, was to drive a wedge between Chowdhury and her young daughter.

In her texts to Chowdhury, Muddar lied about having cancer and claimed that “evil” Ayesha was affecting her health.

She later wrote to Chowdhury: “Your daughter will be destroyed”.

In August 2013 Muddar called Emergency Services saying that Chowdhury had tried to commit suicide and that Ayesha was dead. Chowdhury was found fully clothed inside a bathtub with Ayesha dead nearby.

She had died as a result of a head injury.

Muddar and Polly Chowdhury have pleaded not guilty to murdering Ayesha Ali and also deny alternative charges of manslaughter.